Purpose
Academic knowledge work often presumes collaboration among interdependent individuals. However, this work also involves competitive pressures to perform and even outperform others. While ...knowledge hiding has not yet been extensively examined in the academic environment, this study aims to deepen the understanding of the personal (individual-level) and situational (job-related) factors that affect evasive knowledge hiding (EKH) within academia.
Design/methodology/approach
A field study was conducted on a nation-wide sample of 210 scholars from both public and private business schools in a European Union member state. A series of paired sample t-tests were followed by hierarchical regression analyses to test moderation using the PROCESS macro.
Findings
The results suggest that scholars hide more tacit than explicit knowledge. The findings also indicate a consistent pattern of positive and significant relationships between trait competitiveness and EKH. Furthermore, task interdependence and social support buffer the detrimental relationship between personal competitiveness and evasive hiding of explicit knowledge, but not tacit knowledge.
Originality/value
The research provides insights into several important antecedents of EKH that have not been previously examined. It contributes to research on knowledge transfer in academia by focusing on situations where colleagues respond to explicit requests by hiding knowledge. The moderating role of collaborative job design offers practical solutions on how to improve knowledge transfer between mistrusted and competitive scholars. The collaboration–competition framework is extended by introducing personal competitiveness and relational job design, and suggesting how to manage the cross-level tension of differing collaborative and competitive motivations within academia.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to uncover the nature of job characteristics related to different generational cohorts (Baby-boomers, Generation X and Generation Y). Significant differences ...between four task and four social job characteristics across generational cohorts have been revealed. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical research was conducted through a field study of employees from large-sized Croatian organizations. A cross-sectional and cross-occupational research design was applied. A total of 512 knowledge workers (139 managers and 373 professionals) participated in the research. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to determine and compare work design across generations. Findings – The results indicate that job characteristics are not equally represented within different generational cohorts. While the nature of task job characteristics is mostly irrespective of generations, social job characteristics to some extent differ among generational cohorts. High task variety, reasonably high task identity, and a moderate level of both received interdependence and task significance are recognized as common job characteristics of knowledge workers across generations. However, jobs of Baby-boomers, Xers, and Yers are idiosyncratic for work autonomy, interaction with others, initiated interdependence, and teamwork. Additionally, the inclusion of the work type as a control variable revealed that interaction with others does differ but only among generations of professionals. Originality/value – The present study is the first research in which generational similarities and differences have been empirically examined through job characteristics. The authors focused on knowledge workers within an under-researched context (studies about knowledge workers, work design and generational differences are rare or non-existent in south-eastern European countries), making this systematic investigation unique and practically significant.
The paper explores the potency of managerial work redesign (MWR) for raising employees’ creative performance, based on the job crafting theory that emphasizes changes in task, relational and ...cognitive task boundaries for adapting a job locally during the work process. Grounded in the interactionist approach, the joint effect of three job redesign types is considered, as they typically occur simultaneously. The hypotheses were tested through a laboratory experiment conducted in four phases on a sample of 88 full-time graduate students, and creative results were quantified using three creative performance indicators: number of ideas, number of novel ideas, and novelty ratio. Managerial work redesign was found to contribute significantly to each of the explored creativity outcomes. Moreover, the creativity traits of a person were not found to be a requirement for fully benefiting from MWR interventions, implying that MWR is a potential tool for increasing employees’ creative outcomes no matter of creative predispositions. The study is one of the first quantitative studies testing the impact of MWR mechanisms on creative performance through experimental design.
Active teaching methods are emphasized as an important part of an effective teaching process for Generation Y students. Still, some individual characteristics, such as creativity and learning style, ...need to be considered as they can affect outcomes of the learning process. Empirical research on the students’ preferences for various active and passive teaching methods was done on a sample of graduate students from the Faculty of Economics and Business in Zagreb. Perceptions of students regarding 52 individual teaching methods, and teaching methods bundles were investigated. Findings reveal that more creative students, as well as activists and pragmatists, and especially reflectors while learning, do exhibit the greater inclination towards active teaching methods.
People's happiness has become a first-class political question, which urges both governments and organisations to create policies and practices aimed at improving people's happiness, one of which ...includes human resource management (HRM) practices. As studies exploring the association between country level HRM practices and national happiness on the academic level are scarce, especially empirical ones, the aim of this paper is exactly to address this gap. HRM data used in the study were collected through the Cranet 2014-2016 survey round and refer to 5,093 organisations operating in 27 countries on five continents. National happiness data, Cantril ladder indicator (CLI) as a measure, and six correlates of national happiness, were obtained from the World Happiness Report database. Findings suggest that HRM practices associated with the highest levels of national happiness include: using information technology (IT) recruitment platforms, recruiting based on potentials and not on present knowledge/skills, customised compensations, various work-life balance initiatives, and training and development primarily for career's and not employer's sake, which corresponds with younger workforce cohorts' preferences.
•Research in the area of employee engagement and internal communication satisfaction tends to treat both concepts as one-dimensional.•In this study we explored the relationship between ...multidimensional ICS and multidimensional employee engagement concepts.•Our study confirmed that internal communication satisfaction has a significant role in high employee engagement.•Most relevant ICS dimensions for EE were satisfaction with feedback, informal communication and communication during meetings.•What matters most is that internal communication and employee engagement “feed” each other in a continuous virtual circle.
Engagement is becoming one of the more popular concepts in various social sciences including psychology, organizational behavior, human resource management, and of course public relations. Even though engagement is applied in several areas of public relations, it is most commonly explored in connection to internal communication. The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the growing body of research exploring the relationship between internal communication satisfaction (as a part of internal communication) and employee engagement. Principally we wanted to test the relationship between the eight dimensions of internal communication satisfaction and three employee engagement dimensions.
PurposeAlthough multiple research studies disclosed that internal communication is effective in building trust within organizations, the link between employees' satisfaction with internal ...communication and their trust in their employers has not been explored. The paper explores the interrelationship between eight facets of internal communication satisfaction (ICS) and five dimensions of organizational trust (OT).Design/methodology/approachThe quantitative questionnaire-based field research was conducted on a sample of 289 employees. For the assessment of the ICS, the Internal Communication Satisfaction Scale – UPZIK developed by Tkalac Vercic et al. (2009) was used. OT was assessed using the scale developed by Shockley-Zalabak et al. (2000).FindingsThe research revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between the ICS and OT, both when considering five individual OT dimensions and the overall OT. Moreover, two ICS dimensions – “Satisfaction with communication climate” and “Satisfaction with communication with immediate supervisor” – were found to be the strongest predictors of OT.Originality/valueThe research adds to the discussion of antecedents of trust in organizations by positioning the ICS as a powerful generator of OT.
PurposeThe study explored the relationship between the two concepts—internal communication satisfaction (ICS) and life satisfaction. Additionally, the study analyzed the link between eight internal ...communication dimensions (satisfaction with feedback, satisfaction with communication with immediate superior, satisfaction with horizontal communication, satisfaction with informal communication, satisfaction with information about the organization, satisfaction with communication climate, satisfaction with the quality of communication media and satisfaction with communication in meetings) and life satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachTo exclude the potential impact of contextual factors, we conducted a quantitative field research on a homogeneous sample of 507 respondents, employed in a multinational organization. For the assessment of ICS, we used the Internal Communication Satisfaction Scale (UPZIK), developed by Tkalac Vercic et al. (2009). For the assessment of life satisfaction, we used the satisfaction with life acale (SWLS) developed by Diener et al. (1985).FindingsResults showed a very high, statistically significant correlation between ICS and life satisfaction. All dimensions of ICS are highly correlated with life satisfaction, but this relationship proved to be the strongest between life satisfaction and two dimensions of ICS (satisfaction with informal communication and satisfaction with communication climate).Research limitations/implicationsOur study has three general limitations: (1) the dataset is of cross-sectional nature, which prevents inferring causality between variables; (2) a common source bias is present (ICS and life satisfaction are measured from the same source) and (3) we used self-reports given the subjective nature and others’ reports of life satisfaction yield weaker but similar results (Erdogan et al., 2012).Originality/valueWe identified satisfaction with internal communication, as a work domain that has not yet received attention in the management literature, to have an important role in life satisfaction. Among others, we found satisfaction with informal communication and satisfaction with communication climate to be especially relevant ICS dimensions, implying that organizations should primarily cultivate non-formalized dimensions of internal communication—a positive communication environment.
PurposeThe study examines the psychometric properties of internal communication satisfaction questionnaire (ICSQ), an instrument originally developed in Croatian. A need for a contemporary instrument ...validated among a non-English-speaking population of employees who use English as their second language motivated the authors to translate the scale.Design/methodology/approachICSQ was validated on a sample of 507 employees of a large Croatian subsidiary of a multinational bank, where English is the official corporate language.FindingsICSQ displayed satisfactory levels of psychometric properties, retaining the psychometric properties of the original version of the instrument. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed the acceptable model–data fit of the eight-factor model. Additionally, findings supported the reliability and construct validity of the English version of the instrument. Good internal consistencies of all eight internal communication satisfaction (ICS) dimensions and the total ICSQ and an adequate level of scale homogeneity according to the inter-item and inter-total correlations were found.Research limitations/implicationsIn order to generalize the study’s results to other business areas and industries, the study should be replicated in other contexts. Additionally, construct validity was tested by applying cross-sectional design, and therefore, no conclusion can be drawn on the causal direction of the relationship. Finally, the discriminant validity of ICSQ was not tested and should be examined in future studies.Practical implicationsThe resulting 32-item instrument, in English, can be used for empirical and practical purposes in improving internal communication.Originality/valueThe study confirms that internal communication is a multidimensional construct and should be measured as such.
While research on managing labour relations in multinational companies (MNCs) has made great strides in recent years, large-scale quantitative comparisons of these companies’ behaviour and the extent ...to which this behaviour is shaped by country-of-origin and country-of-operations institutional effects are still in short supply. In this article we analyse organised labour activities in 18 countries via a sample of 1872 private organisations – 874 MNCs and 998 domestic organisations – using the Cranet survey database. Research results imply a weaker position of organised labour in MNCs than in domestic private organisations. MNCs from the Anglo-Saxon and Corporatist labour relations environment were found to adapt their labour relations practices to the local setting to a significant extent, while Mediterranean MNCs proved less adaptable. They all recognised organised labour endeavours to a greater extent when required, yet reduced their recognition of these when this was acceptable from a local labour relations environment perspective, implying opportunistic behaviour.
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